English business

...

Buyers, who are aware of all the outlets, will avoid the higherpriced shop and buy their books elsewhere.

Conclusion: A large number of sellers, the consumers' knowledge of prices and shops limit the ability of any single supplier to influence prices.

Summary :Classical economy and laissez-faire:

- economic individualism and pursuit of self-interest

- market self-regulation is desirable and beneficial

- the role of the state should be minimal

- David Ricardo

an English classical economist (1772-1823)

labour theory of value and theory of comparative advantage

The labour theory of value :

the value of an item could be measured objectively by the average number of labour hours necessary to produce it.

Example: A horse cart = 20 ounces of gold vs. a pair of shoes = 2 ounces, What made the horse cart 10 times as valuable as the shoes? Labour theory of value: the horse cart took 10 times as much labour to produce as the shoes.

The theory of comparative advantage :

countries should import and specialise, in producing the goods and services that they can produce at a lower opportunity cost (=most cheaply) and import those that are more expensive to produce.

- Karl Marx

a socialist economist (1818-1883)

influenced communist leaders (Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin) specially in communist Russia

Because of the industrial revolution the conditions of worhing haschanged

Socialism = reaction to the miserable living and working conditions of the working class.

Carl Marw wrote a book called Capital (1867) he describe capitalism as a form of social and economic oragnisation based on capital accumulation and factory production : owners of the factories = “capitalists” forced to exploit the workers who worked in their factories to make profits.Capitalist can never make profit unless (à moins que) they pay their workers,employes less than the real value of their labour

He develops the explotation theory of capitalism, even if productivity and production rose rapidely, workers would endure constant povrety . Exept if they use violence against the capitalist

From the Golden Age to the Great Depression (cycle):

beginning of the Industrial Revolution : a surplus of agricultural workers seeking employment in factories low wages (bas salaires)

- industry expanded full employment higher wages (salairs plus haut)

- machinery developed fewer workers were needed wages lowered

- workers could not afford buying the goods they produced overproduction prices dropped and unemployment increased.

- John Maynard Keynes and Keynesianism (new school of economic)

Capitalism and classical economic showed their limits

a British economist (1883-1946)

his theory dominated the world of economics from the end of WW2 to the 1970s

-Contrary to Marx he was not a socialist and not a capitalism like smith

a managed(regulaated) form of capitalism: the government had a role to play in the economy .

For Keynes the great depression was a question about spending, according to Keynes in order to help the economy recover, it was crucial to boost spending/stimulate demand economic recovery: - cut taxes - make public investments - low interest rates (taux d'intéret)

Keynesianism is a sharp contrast to laissez-faire and classical economics : it strongly believes in government intervention

Keynes invented the idea of using the governement to overcome recessions , his idea were adopted in many country during the great depressions

- The Chicago School of Economics

governments should not interfere with markets because markets self-regulate.

5.1. Milton Friedman

an American economist (1912-2006)

received the Nobel Prize in Economics (1976) , very enfluencial at the end oh the 20th century

rejected the use of fiscal policy and thought the government's role in the economy should be restricted

the government should keep the money supply fairly stable, expanding it slightly each year to allow for the natural growth of the economy // the Quantity Theory of Money

QTM: a direct relationship between the quantity of money in an economy and the level of prices of goods and services sold, causing inflation. Inflation fould (prendre pour un imbécile) consummers

- Gary Becker

an American economist (1930-2014)

received the Nobel Prize in Economics (1992) he is famous for his micro economic analysis on human behaviour

research on discrimination in markets: free market in favour of equality (racial and gender) firms refusing to hire the best-qualified workers because of their race or gender put themselves at a competitive disadvantage

research on family and household behaviour: families are economic units. family members tend to act on the basis of cost-benefit analyses

CHAPTER 3: THE MACROECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT.

People want to use resources as fully as possible and they hope that the national output (=production) would grow. But not easy periods of stagnation and high unemployment. e.g. the Great Depression of the 1930s, the early 1980s, the early 1990s, the late 2000s...

Economy